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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Blossom-headed Parrakeet
General material designation
Parallel title
Plum-headed parakeet
Other title information
Psittacula cyanocephala
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Caption title.
- Parallel titles and other title information: Title from Mousley: Paloeornis cyanocephalas
Level of description
Item
Repository
Reference code
CA RBD MSG BW002-266
Edition area
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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm + 1 leaf
Publisher's series area
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Archival description area
Name of creator
(approximately 1720-approximately 1790)
Biographical history
Peter Paillou was born in London into a Huguenot family and was recognised in his own time as an eminent ‘bird painter’. In 1744 he began to paint for Taylor White and worked for him for almost thirty years, painting chiefly birds and mammals. He painted as well for Robert More, Joseph Banks, and for the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. Many of his paintings of birds were used as the basis for book illustrations, often engraved by his colleague and fellow Huguenot, Peter Mazell. Paillou was elected to the Society of Artists and in 1763 he exhibited ‘A Piece of Birds, in Watercolours; the Hen of the Wood and Cock of the Red Game’. In 1778, to considerable approval, he also showed a picture of ‘A Horned Owl from Peru’, completely made from feathers.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Drawing of a Plum-headed parakeet from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: the Indo-Malayan Realm and the Palearctic, Deccan, and Western Ghats.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Notes area
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General note
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Blossom-headed Parrakeet (Paloeornis cyanocephalas) Cucculatus Ps. Macrorus rostro flavo;
General note
Manuscript note on back of drawing: The Bloom Bird from Point de Gall on the South part of the Island of Ceylon in the E. Indies
General note
Scientific name: Psittacula cyanocephala
Accompanying material
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Accompanying material
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Cucculatus
Ps: macrorus rostro flavo cera e maxilla inferiore
nigrescente pupilis Nigris circulis albis cinctis.
Fronte et genis coccineis occipite cucculato Caeruleo
gula nigra pectore abdomine et faemoribus luteis
collo parte inferiore flavo superiore viride
caerulescente et splendente dorso viride
flavescente alis partibus superioribus
glaucis macculo coccineo notatis remigibus
et tectricibus viridibus. uropigio Glauco sp[l]endente
sicut etiam rectricibus inferioribus tamen
apicibus luteis rectribus albis pedibus albis
magnitudine precendenti aequalis
Habitat In Insulla Leytonica
The Bloom Bird
Accompanying material
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Cucculatus
Ps: macrorus with a golden-yellow beak, a black cere from the lower mandible,
black pupils encircled with white rings;
a scarlet forehead and cheeks, a blue hooded hindhead,
black throat, and a yellow breast, abdomen, and thighs;
a neck that is golden-yellow on the underside and bright blue-green
on top, a golden-green back,
wings that are grey and marked
with a scarlet spot on the top, green flight feathers
and covert feathers on the wings; a bright bluish-grey rump
and also blue-grey inner flight feathers on the tail, but
the tips of these are yellow; white flight feathers on the tail, and white feet.
It is the same size as the previous bird.
It lives on the island of Ceylon.
The Bloom Bird
Alternative identifier(s)
Volume number
Birds Volume 1, Painting 11